What is Searchlight on Campaign 2001?Searchlight
on Campaign 2001 is a guide to the political races in what
many are calling New York City's most significant campaign
season in modern history.

What is so significant about it?For
the first time in memory, most political offices in the city
will be wide open to people who have neither money nor connections.

Why will the races be so open?There
are two reasons. This year, a new law goes into effect that
limits the terms of New York City elected officials, forcing
the mass retirement of most incumbents in the city - including
the mayor, the comptroller, the public advocate, four of the
five borough presidents, and 36 of the 51 members of the City
Council. At the same time, a new campaign finance law kicks
in, which allows any candidate who agrees to certain restrictions
to collect four dollars of matching funds for every dollar
they raise.

What does this have to do with this site?As
a public service, Searchlight on Campaign 2001 has a separate
page for each race, including all the races for City Council,
that not only sorts out the candidates -- many of them new
and unfamiliar -- but also offers an opportunity to learn
about the issues, and the districts themselves.

Who is behind Searchlight on Campaign 2001?
Searchlight
on Campaign 2001 is a project of Gotham Gazette, a non-profit,
non-partisan, non-ideological (but non-boring) web site about
New York City news, policy and politics published by Citizens
Union Foundation, part of the oldest and largest good-government
group in the city (founded in 1897).

What's wrong with the way the regular press
covers the races?That
is for you to decide. And one of our regular features, Campaign
Trail, helps you to decide. Campaign Trail provides succinct
summaries and links to campaign articles in the commercial
press.

Walk ten minutes from Chinatown's garment district and you are
in the middle of Wall Street. Worlds apart, one area has some
of the poorest, the other some of the richest people in the city.
They are nevertheless part of the same council district.

Whoever wins Kathryn Freed's seat in City Council will face a
unique challenge in trying to address the needs of such an economically
stratified district. . In Chinatown and the Lower East Side, residents
are concerned about issues of race and immigration, poverty and
class. The people who live in Tribeca, Battery Park City and the
other affluent neighborhoods in the district, on the other hand,
focus on historic preservation and land use policy, environmental
protection, and town-gown relations with New York University.

For
more information on this district -- its schools, its crime
statistics and more -- click here.

"Any candidate will need to have a foot in each camp," said Freed,
who is running for public advocate and has not endorsed any of
the District 1 candidates. "The person who will win will have
to build coalitions."

Endorsements and fundraising may also play a role. But voter
turnout could be the main determinant of who will next represent
District 1 on the council. The key question is how many voters
from each community will come out on Election Day.

There are six Democratic declared candidates, at least four of
whom have already raised more than $50,000. Alan Gerson, an attorney
and member of Community Board 2, leads in fundraising and is competing
with John Fratta for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver's endorsement.
Fratta, who was "born and raised in Little Italy," is a member
of Bronx Community Board 11.

Three Asian-American candidates are each hoping to become the
first Asian on the City Council, although that honor could go
to one of the candidates for the seat from District 20 in Queens.
Rocky Chin, a labor activist and public interest lawyer, has amassed
one of the largest campaign chests and seems to have a solid base
in Chinatown. He hopes to score the endorsement of David Dinkins.
Also vying for the Asian-American vote are housing activist Margaret
Chin and Kwong Hui, who has a history in labor organizing.

Also running is public interest attorney Brad Hoylman, who is
gay, a one-time student activist, and a former Rhodes scholar.

In 1997, Freed defeated an Asian American opponent, prompting
some to say the Asian community did not yet have enough political
clout to elect one of its members to represent lower Manhattan.
According to research by political consultant Jerry
Skurnik, of the 61,574 registered voters in the district,
24 percent have Asian names., which is far below their percentage
of the population.

Things may be different this time around, thanks to efforts to
organize and register Chinese Americans as well as other lower
income people. But with three Asian American candidates, the Chinese
vote may be split, giving none of them enough votes to win.

Rocky Chin hopes to attract support in Hispanic and white neighborhoods
as well. He said that, although he wants to voice the concerns
of Chinatown and the Lower East Side on the council, he is also
in touch with the issues of the city as a whole.

Fratta said one deciding factor could be how all the candidates
- not just Asian Americans - divide their voting bases. Fratta
said that, while his main base of support is in such lower Manhattan
neighborhoods as Tribeca and Battery Park City, he has also attracted
voters in the Lower East Side and the Village. "Given the equal
money, it will be a close race," said Fratta.

The winner could have to run in a completely different kind of
district next time. All the city's districts have to be redrawn
by 2003 to reflect Census 2000, and there is already talk of redistricting
along more economically and socially homogeneous lines.

Glenn Magpantay, a lawyer at the Asian American Legal Defense
and Education Fund, said that District 1 could be changed to include
only Chinatown and the Lower East Side. "The court has said, in
order to draw districts to represent racial minorities, they must
represent communities of common interest," said Magpantay.

Posted 1/29/01

Campaign Update:

There are now eight Democratic candidates running in district
1 and one Libertarian candidate, Jordan Kauffman. Both Elana Waksal
Posner, a 28-year -old attorney and founder of a retail Internet
site that sells beauty products and Julio Arroyo recently announced
their intentions to run as Democrats. Kauffman, Posner, and Arroyo
did not respond to requests for interviews.

Some of the other candidates have been campaigning since January
or earlier and working to get endorsements from some of the major
political communities in the district like Asian-American organizations,
gay and lesbian groups, labor unions, and local Democratic clubs.
Many of the endorsements went as one might expect -- the Gay and
Lesbian Independent Democrats, for example, endorsed openly gay
candidate Brad Hoylman -- but there were a few exceptions. Alan
Gerson gained the support of the United Democratic Organization
of Chinatown and Margaret Chin received the Liberal Party endorsement,
which will allow her to run in the November general election regardless
of the results of the September Democratic primary. See the Campaign
Trail below for details.

Posted 7/16/01

Candidate Biographies

Margaret Chin, deputy executive director of Asian Americans
for Equality, was a bilingual teacher for a brief period before
directing the Chinatown Center. In 1991 and 1993, Chin ran for
City Council unsuccessfully. She received her BS in Education
from City College and a Masters Degree in Economic Analysis and
Public Policy from Baruch College.

Rocky Chin, a civil rights attorney for the New York City
Commission on Human Rights, helped organize the campaigns of David
Dinkins and Jesse Jackson and worked as a campaign manager for
Sau Ngar Li and Danny Yip, two successful Asian American candidates
for Community Board 2. Chin received a Masters Degree in City
Planning from Yale University and a law degree from the University
of Southern California.

John Fratta was born and raised in Little Italy. He has
been active in politics for 30 years, most recently as the district
manager of community board 11 in the Bronx and as a Democratic
district leader on the Lower East Side.

Alan Gerson, an attorney at Kelley Drye, served as the
chairman of community board 2 in Manhattan from 1998-1999. He
created a swimming team for young people in Lower Manhattan and
has worked on reducing noise form motorcycles and bars. He also
initiated the Heart Defibrillation Public Health Pilot Program.
He received his JD from Columbia University Law School and his
BA from Columbia College.

Brad Hoylman, a nonprofit lawyer and former Rhodes Scholar,
was an organizer in New York City for the 1992 Clinton campaign.
As a member of community board 2 he helped form the Creative Community
Task Force for cancer research and serves as counsel to the New
York City Partnership where he developed programs to build affordable
housing and recruit public school teachers. He is the executive
officer of Gay and Lesbian Democrats. He grew up in West Virginia
and went to Harvard Law School after he attended a state college.
He moved to New York City ten years ago.

Kwong Hui helped win settlements for workers working in
sweatshop conditions and has fought for minimum wage increases
for thousands of tip-earning employees. He has been a member of
Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence and the Chinese Staff &
Workers Association. Before attending Brooklyn College for his
undergraduate degree, he served in the U.S. Army until he received
an honorable discharge in 1987.

Jordan Kaufman (no information available)

Elana Waksal Posner is an attorney who grew up in lower
Manhattan. After receiving her JD from Benjamin N. Cardozo School
of Law, she co-founded ibeauty.com, an internet retail site for
beauty products. Posner interned for Governor Mario Cuomo, Geraldine
Ferraro, as well as the Democratic National Committee. As an undergraduate
at New York University she led an initiative to help clean up
Washington Square Park. She is currently working on the restoration
of the Roebling building, located in the Tribeca Historic District.

Campaign Trail

9/10/01
One of the city's biggest supermarket barons is
giving special help to first-time City Council candidate Elana
Waksal Posner - he's stuffing shoppers' grocery bags with her
campaign literature. Gristedes chain owner John Catsimatidis is
using his Battery Park City store at 71 South End Ave. to dole
out material for Posner, who is running for the seat being vacated
by Kathryn Freed in lower Manhattan. (New
York Post)

9/3/01
In 1991, when the City Council was expanded to add more minority
members, the new First District in Chinatown was expected to produce
the city's first Asian-American elected official. With that in
mind, Chinatown's leaders debated whether it would be better to
yoke their neighborhood to the heavily Latino East Side, which
might share its concerns about bilingual education, health care
and housing, or the whiter, more affluent West Side, where Asians
would be the predominant minority. The West Side won out, producing
a district that includes parts of the East and West Village, SoHo,
TriBeCa, Little Italy, South Street Seaport, Wall Street and Battery
Park City - but, so far, no Chinese-American council member. With
the field wide open, there had been much talk in the district
that this year, that could change. But of the six candidates in
the race who are participating in the city's campaign finance
system, the three who are Chinese-Americans are lagging in fund-raising
and endorsements behind two white candidates, Brad M. Hoylman
and Alan J. Gerson. (NY
Times)

8/29/01 The New York Times today endorsed a candidate in this race.
First District (Lower Manhattan): Seven candidates are competing
in this diverse district, three of whom stand out. They are Brad
Hoylman, a former Rhodes Scholar, gay activist and counsel to
the New York City Partnership; Alan Gerson, a lawyer with a solid
record of community service; and Rocky Chin, a civil rights lawyer
for the New York City Commission on Human Rights. We endorse Brad
Hoylman, who promises to serve the entire district in a thoughtful
and lively way, focusing on broader democratic reform of the Council
as well as district needs for housing and expanded city services.

08/06/01
The New York Times called this one of the ten races to watch.
In a crowded race to fill the seat held by Kathryn E. Freed, the
contest in this district, which includes Chinatown and Lower Manhattan,
is likely to be a high-spending competition because one candidate,
Alana Wachs-Posner, is not participating in the city's program
of public financing for campaigns. That lifts the spending limits
for the other six candidates. Another question: Will this district,
with three Asian-American candidates, elect an Asian-American
Council member? (New York Times)

7/15
The hotly contested race to succeed Councilwoman Kathryn E Freed
in Lower Manhattan, which has a sizeable gay population, has splintered
gay political leaders, despite the presence of a gay candidate.
To be sure, Brad Hoylman, a 35-year-old lawyer who lives near
Washington Square Park with his male partner, has won the endorsements
of most gay groups and politicians. But in a field where most
of the candidates have strong records on issues of importance
to gay men and lesbians, some politicians have cited other factors
in endorsing the other candidates. Assemblywoman Debroah Glick,
the first lesbian to be elected to statewide office and a past
president of the Gay and Lesiban Independent Democrats, endorsed
John Fratta. The Stonewall Democrats, and Aubrey Lees, new chairwoman
of Community Board 2, endorsed Alan Gerson. Some observers see
this as a sign of the gay community coming of age politically.
(NY Times)

7/05/01
Elana Waksal Posner, the 28-year-old attorney, and possibly New
York's first dot-com candidate, is shaping up as the Mike Bloomberg
in the First Councilmanic District, which covers a good chunk
of Lower Manhattan. (Downtown
Express)

7/05/01
Adding some West Side and gay clout to his Lower East Side/Little
Italy base, John Fratta last week captured important endorsements
from Assembly member Deborah Glick and two prominent gay men,
Alan Roskoff, a Village activist, and Troy Masters, owner/publisher
of LGNY, a gay and lesbian weekly newspaper. (Downtown
Express)

7/5/01
Five of the seven Democratic candidates for the Lower Manhattan
First City Council District outlined their positions on issues
of concern to the business community such as the proposed Stock
Exchange and Guggenheim projects, at a June 20 forum at the Regent
Wall St. (Downtown
Express)

6/20/01
Elana Waksal Posner, a 28-year-old attorney from a wealthy family,
has done everything a City Council candidate would do except announce
her candidacy officially. Posner has been collecting signatures
to be placed on the ballot for the Sept. 11 Democratic primary.
(Downtown
Express)

6/20/01
City Council candidate Margaret Chin, deputy executive director
of Asian Americans for Equality, has won the Liberal Party endorsement
for City Council and said she will run in the November general
election regardless of the results of the Sept. 11 Democratic
primary. City Council candidate Rocky Chin, an attorney on leave
from the city's Human Rights Commission, won the endorsement of
the Working Families Party, which increasingly becoming the political
voice of pro-labor, progressive Democrats. (Downtown
Express)

6/20/01
City Council candidate Brad Hoylman talks about his career in
public service and being gay: "I grew up believing public service
is a noble calling. I was concerned I would not be able to pursue
a career in public service because I'm gay. That's why I'm so
grateful to be living in New York City and having the opportunity
to run for City Council as an openly gay man." (Downtown
Express)

5/30/01
Rocky Chin, an early front-runner in downtown Manhattan's City
Council, did not get endorsed as he had hoped by the Gay and Lesbian
Independent Democrats or the Village Independent Democrats. But
with the Working Families endorsement, Chin remains hopeful that
he may become the first Asian American City Council representative.
(Village
Voice)

5/23/01
John Fratta won endorsements from both Assembly Speaker Sheldon
Silver and State Senate Minority Leader Martin Connor. Brad Hoylman
grabbed the endorsements of both the Gay and Lesbian Independent
Democrats and more surprisingly of Village Independent Democrats.
Alan Gerson - who earlier had been endorsed by Ed Koch and Borough
President C. Virginia Fields - won the support of Downtown Independent
Democrats, and United Democratic Organization of Chinatown. (The
Villager)

4/19/01
Six Democratic candidates vying for City Councilmember Kathryn
Freed's seat shared their views on everything from public parks
to the death penalty. (The
Villager)

3/15/01
Former Mayor Ed Koch has endorsed Alan Gerson in the race for
City Council from the 1st District. Koch said Gerson "worked on
all of my campaigns, and I know he is first rate." Gerson also
got the nod from Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields
who said Gerson's experience as the former chairperson of Community
Board 2 would be invaluable on the Council. (The
Villager)

2/01/01 Manhattan's Chinatown is home to two well-known contenders
to be the City Council's first Asian-American rep. But the smart
money is betting on Flushing's John Liu to actually get the seat.
(City
Limits)

1/24/01
There are six candidates for Kathryn Freed's City Council seat,
in District 1: Rocky Chin, an attorney with the New York City
Commission on Human Rights; Margaret Chin, an executive with a
non-profit advocacy group, Asian Americans for Equality; Democratic
District Leader John Fratta; Community Board member Alan Gerson;
Brad Hoylman, an attorney with New York City Partnership, and
Kwong Hui, who has worked closely with a labor advocacy group,
Chinese Staff and Workers Association. Assembly Speaker Sheldon
Silver says he will endorse either Fratta or Gerson. (Downtown
Express)

District
1 -- Lower Manhattan
Whoever wins the election in district 1 will represent immigrant
Chinese garment workers, as well as Wall Street traders living
in Battery Park City. There are several candidates hoping
to be the council's firsts -- the first Asian-American man,
the first Asian-American woman, the first gay Rhodes Scholar,
the first dot-com guru -- running against some politically
well connected opponents. Endorsements and fundraising will
play a big role in this race. But voter turnout could be the
main determinant of who will next represent district 1 on
the council. The key question is how many voters from each
community will come out on Election Day.

District
7 -- Washington Heights, Manhattan
The northern tip of Manhattan has become one of the most popular
places for new immigrants to call home. The northern tip of
Manhattan is a place that today's new immigrants call home.
The majority have come from the Dominican Republic, but also
from countries in South America, Eastern Europe, and Asia.
But it is not just new immigrants that are moving in. Students,
artists, and other Manhattanites looking for less expensive
rents and larger apartments have also moved north. Ten Democratic
candidates are competing for the 15,000 voters expected on
primary day. The winner who emerges from a crowded field of
candidates will have to balance the needs of the newcomers
with those who have lived there for years.

District
16 -- Highbridge, Bronx
The neighborhoods of district 16 are the city's poorest, with
the highest rate of unemployment and the lowest median household
income. But those who live there also point out that much
is positive and stable about the area, thanks in large part
to local organizations, not-for-profit agencies, and houses
of worship that help hold the neighborhoods together. Each
candidate for City Council believes that through his or her
connections to churches and local organizations, they can
help empower the community toward a better life. Helen Foster,
the current council member daughter, will face Michael Benjamin,
who has worked as an aide to several government officials
and Anthony Curry, a Bronx neighborhood activist.

District
20 -- Northeast Flushing, Queens
This year district 20 may elect the first Asian-American ever
to the City Council to an area which now has the second highest
number of immigrants from Korea and Taiwan in the city. There
are three Asian candidates in the Democratic race who have
each drawn big endorsements. Council Speaker Peter Vallone
endorsed Terence Park, City Comptroller Alan Hevesi endorsed
John Liu, and the New York Times recently endorsed Ethel Chen
The campaign has also drawn national and international press
coverage

District
25 -- Jackson Heights, Queens
Thirty-seventh Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens is one of
the most diverse streets in the world. Little India quickly
blends into Little Colombia, with vendors selling Latin American
food to Colombians, Peruvians, Ecuadorians, Mexicans, and
Uruguayans. And each summer, the Queens Pride Parade fills
the same street with rainbow banners. So it is no surprise
that this election year the district produced a diverse field
of candidates. A number of them, however, found out that getting
on the ballot is not an easy task, especially when the Queens
Democratic organization sends teams of lawyers to challenge
petitions. But five Democratic candidates survived and will
face off on September 11.

District
31 -- South East Queens
When a heavy rain hits southeast Queens, many residents in
neighborhoods like Springfield Gardens, Laurelton and Rosedale
head to the basement with a bucket in hand. And it has been
that way for the last 50 years. In the rush to build housing
in the area after World War II, developers overlooked the
need for storm drains in hopes that the city would eventually
build a city-wide sewer system. The plan never materialized
and the area has experienced "100-year rains" three times
in the last decade. The eight Democrats -- all with little
experience overseeing massive infrastructure projects--will
try to convince voters that they can finally solve the flooding
problems.

District
35 -- Central Brooklyn
The residents in council district 35 have some of the highest
incomes in Brooklyn and some of the lowest. They can play
in a famous park and a beautiful botanical garden, and live
in the city's most crumbling public housing. They can attend
one of the four institutions of higher learning in the district,
and the worst-scoring high schools in the city. Such juxtapositions
are a way of life for a district that includes the Brooklyn
Academy of Music, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Brooklyn Botanical
Gardens; mid dle-class African-American communities near Prospect
Park; immigrant communities from Haiti, Sierra Leon, Nigeria,
and Trinidad, and in Crown Heights, a mix of Hasidic Jews
and African-Americans. Seven Democratic candidates are campaigning
in hopes that they can bring some kind of unity, and attention,
to the area. Their backgrounds are as diverse as the neighborhoods
themselves.

District
39 -- Park Slope/Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
The candidates in district 39 include a chief of staff for
an Assemblywoman, the husband of a member of U.S. Congress,
a lawyer for the Legal Aid Society, an attorney and president
of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, Senator Hillary
Clinton's campaign manager, the district manager of Community
Board 6, and a labor organizer. This is the race to watch
this year. The group of high-profile Democrats have raised
a lot of money, almost $1.4 million combined.

District
45 -- East Flatbush
In no place in the city are the effects of campaign finance
reform and term limits being felt more than in East Flatbush.
The seven Democratic candidates seeking to represent this
largely West Indian district come from a number of Caribbean
nations. Many have been working on politicians' staffs and
serving with community groups, clearly hoping someday to win
their own elected office. Term limits has presented them with
that opportunity, and they want to make the most of it. But
this race that usually draws only about 8,000 voters could
be decided by just a few votes. The candidates are attempting
to come up with anything that will separate them from the
pack.

District
49 -- North Shore, Staten Island
Staten Island has always been somewhat of a suburban stepchild
to New York City. When a 1998 survey asked New Yorkers why
they go to Staten Island, the top two responses were ''visiting
friends and relatives" and ''passing through.'' But in many
ways, the north shore has more in common with areas of Manhattan
and Brooklyn than with the rest of the Staten Island. The
top priority for all the candidates -- Jon Del Giorno, an
administrative manager for the Board of Elections, Mike McMahon,
an attorney and counsel to current Councilmember Jerome O'Donovan,
and Debi Rose, an administrator at the College of Staten Island
and the first African-American candidate in Staten Island
politics -- is to make sure that the island becomes more than
just a turn-around-point for the over one million tourists
who ride the free ferry from Manhattan each year.

American
Dream Party (AMD)
Better Schools Party (BES)
Communist (Com)
Conservative (Con)
Constitution (CST)
Democratic (Dem)
Friends United Party (FUN)
Fusion Party (FUS)
Green (Gre)
Harmony Party (HAR)
Independence (Ind)
Liberal (Lib)
Libertarian (LBT)
Marijuana Reform Party (POT)
Natural Law Party (NLP)
Party of Ethics and Traditions (PET)
Reform Party (Ref)
Republican (Rep)
Right to Life (RTL)
School Choice Party (Sch)
Socialist Workers Party (SWP)
Working Families (Wor)

2001 Election
Calendar

June
1 -- Deadline for candidates to join the Campaign Finance
program, qualifying for the four-to-one match of contributions.June
5 - First day for candidates from the eight major parties
(Democratic, Republican, Indpendence, Conservative, Liberal,
Green, Working Families, and Right to Life) to circulate
petitions. Candidates running for City Council must collect
the signatures of at least 900 people living in the district
for which they are running in order to appear on the Primary
ballot. Candidates not running under these eight major parties
do not appear on the Primary ballot and have a separate
set of deadlines.July 12 - Deadline for major party candidates to
file petitions.July 10 - First day for unaffiliated candidates to
circulate petitions, in order to appear on the ballot in
the General Election. They must collect the number of signatures
equal to five percent of the total enrolled in that party.August 7 - Board of Elections announces candidates
appearing on the Primary ballot. August 17 - Last day for non-absentee voters to register
to vote in the Primary Election. August 21 - Deadline for non-major party candidates
to file petitions to be included on the General Election
ballot. September 4 - Last day to postmark application for
absentee voting in the Primary September 10 - Last day to personally deliver application
for absentee voting in the Primary Last day to postmark
absentee ballot for Primary September 11 - Primary election; Polls open at 6:00a.m.
and close at 9:00p.m.; Absentee ballots must be hand-delivered
by 9:00 p.m. September 25 - Runoff Primary election for Mayor,
Comptroller and Public Advocate, if needed October 12 - Last day to for non-absentee voters
to register to vote in the General Election October 30 - Last day to postmark application for
absentee voting in the General Election November 5 - Last day to hand-deliver an application
for absentee voting, or to postmark an absentee ballot for
the General Election. November 6 - General Election; polls open at 6:00a.m.
and close at 9:00p.m. in NYC; Absentee ballots must be hand-delivered
by 9:00 p.m.